A Complete Guide to Using Filters in Photography

in 6:00 a.m. I’m stuck in the elevator
I’m not stuck alright stop I’m getting out of here and once I do I’m gonna
shoot some pictures so over on my Facebook group I asked what kind of
videos do you guys want to watch what sort of things do you want to see in a
video and overwhelmingly people said they want to see how to use filters so
well I don’t think that conditions are perfect for filter photography this
morning I’m gonna walk you through all the filters I use why I use them how to
use them and what they mean so we’re gonna walk down to the beach here it’s
ok cat There’s a cat freaking out. obviously before you use filters you
need to find a photo and I’m down at what they call the beach here on sea
roast it’s like a cement I guess cement slab right onto the coast
here it’s actually really cool but what’s cooler than the beach itself is
the view back this way it’s almost like almost like Venetian or what you see
sometimes in Croatia you have the houses right onto the sea and then
here you have this Cathedral back this way and there’s a couple cool
compositions I think a wide-angle lens up here is cool and maybe a telephoto
shot from a little farther back so I’m gonna go for a little walk back this way
and see what I see after walking around a bit I think that
a little bit farther backs the better composition but I think this is better
to teach you filters so I’m going to set up here so before I jump into deeper talk about
each filter I think you need to understand filters and I think the most
important thing to understand about filters is nd what is nd mean nd is
neutral density neutral density essentially it’s just a dark in your
image if I slide an ND filter and it reduces the amount of light that comes
through the camera and the an neutral is for the idea that it’s supposed to be
neutral it’s supposed to be gray it’s not supposed to add some sort of color
cast your image but the truth is most NDs actually do create some sort of
minor color cast Lee filters are a little bit famous for giving a bit of a blue
cast others are famous for giving a little bit of a magenta or green look
the only ones I’ve ever found that were really neutral were the fire crest
filters by format hightech but I had so many issues with them for example one
time I bought an and an ND filter and when it came the filter wasn’t in the
case so I had so many issues with them that I just went back to Lee Filters the Lees might not be the absolute best one but it is probably the most reliable
now nd filters are defined based on their stops so like one stop to stop
three stops four stops carrying on all the way to ten and even sixteen stops
and one that means is how many stops of light does that reduce from getting into
your camera and if you don’t understand stops of light pretty simply there’s
three ways to manipulate a stop on your camera shutter speed ISO and aperture
one stop of aperture is like F 2.8 2 F 4 F 4 2f 5.6 at 5.6 f 8 f 8 to 11 16 and
so on with shutter speed it’s basically by doubling the shutter speed every time
so 1 second 2 seconds 4 seconds 8 seconds every time you double it you
gain a stop of light and then with ISO it’s the same thing it’s doubling it
it’s going from ISO 100 to 200 to 400 to 800 every time you double it you gain
the stuff of light but just to make things more confusing and ND filters are
not always defined by one stop two stops they’re usually defined by a number zero
point and the way it works is every zero point three is one stop so if a grad ND
for example which we’ll talk about later is zero point three that’s one stop of
light if it’s zero point six that’s two at zero point nine that’s
one point two is four this is the Li ten stop ND filter so that’s a three point
zero nd I’m not sure the reasoning behind that but I’m sure there’s good
reason um it’s getting brighter so let’s start putting some filters on okay so
I’ve got a cool shot set up I think simple but cool obviously you can use
circular filters they exist I use square filters I use the Lee filters they come
with this attachment that goes on the front of your lens so when you buy
filters when you buy Lee filters or any of the square filter systems you get
adapters that go on the front of your lenses and then you just put on the
adapter and you pop it on like that and then the filters I’ll slide in and the
reason the biggest reason I like the square filters is they don’t vignette
use screw on filters they tend to vignette a lot and even if they don’t
this is really nice because I just leave the adapters on all the time
and if I switch lenses I just pop this off and I put it on to my other lens the
meter says f11 0.4 seconds ISO 100 I want to slow that down to about 30
seconds to really smooth out this water as you guys probably know that’s kind of
my thing so I’m gonna put a six top ND filter that’s just a pure nd so I’m on
manual right now as I slide this in is gonna go totally black it’s completely
black so now I’m compensating for these stops by sliding up my shutter speed and
six stops of light brings me to what looks good at about 20 seconds and so if
I just fire that I now have a 20 second shutter which is a massive difference
from the zero point four second shutter so that’s what an ND does it allows you
to slow down the shutter speed or I guess to drop the aperture as well it
would be a good reason there’s actually a ton of reasons why to use an ND filter
or how to use an ND filter and I think that’s a video for a whole other day but
usually use it to slow down the shutter speed to smooth out water or waterfalls
or things like that get motion and traffic sometimes you use it to drop the
aperture if you’re shooting portraits especially and you want to drop the
aperture for some reason and sometimes people use them in flash photography as
well so that they can get their camera down to syncing speed with off-camera
flashes if they’re shooting like in the middle of the day there are some Chuck’s
making love in the background some animals have no respect I’m trying to
film a video here okay so it’s getting a little bit
brighter in the sky and I’m gonna throw on the second type of filter the second
type is a grad filter you can see this it’s dark on the top it’s bright on the
bottom this is a one point two medium grad ND filter and I think grad filters
are where people get the most confused you know one point two means four stops
what you don’t know is that they come in three different kinds actually four
different kinds of filters there’s the medium grad which I’ll just
slide in now I’m basically soft medium and hard basically define how gradual
the transition is from the bright part to the dark part of the image soft grads
has a really slow transition so it helps you use it when there’s things like
mountains or buildings around and you won’t get a hard line of darkness a hard
grad has a really hard line to straight across so it can be used when you’re on
like the Seon Coast with flat horizons or the prairies I want to telephoto but
that’s again another video for another day and then grad filters they usually
come in one two three or four stops and when they’re talking about stops on grad
filters they’re talking about how dark is the darkest part of the grad filter
and if I’m being totally honest never have I ever used a one-stop grad nd I
tend to use three stops more than anything I use four stops quite a bit
and I’ll use my to stop every now and then but let me slide each one of these
filters into the camera just for you to have a look at what what the difference
is so it’s getting brighter and basically
I’m just evaluating the bottom half of this image for brightness and I’ve come
to 11 F 11 15 seconds the six top nd is still in and I’m just gonna slide in
these grad filters to show you the difference starting with probably the
most popular grad filter that people use the three stop soft
Brad nd so as we slide this in you’ll see it on the live view it’ll just
slowly make the top of the image darker and you can see that transitions really
nice and soft so you actually can’t tell there’s a filter there so eventually
this is probably the filter I’m going to use but I’ll show you the other two
three four filters that I have this is the three stop hard grad so I use this
on my telephoto lens has a hard line on the transition so you’ll see when I
slide it in you can see the line is much harder and sometimes it can be a bit
harsh you can see in the buildings it’s too dark there there’s not enough of a
transition this is the two stops off 20.6 soft and again it does that soft
grad thing but you can see it’s not taking enough out of the sky it’s pretty
close but needs probably one more stop and then finally this is the four stop
medium grad so it’s got a medium gradient and it’s four stops out at the
top we slide that in it cuts that down but as you can see it’s a little bit
probably too dark in the sky so let’s shoot a photo or two with this three
stop soft ride and see how that comes out I’ve switched on my composition to kind
of get lower and use some sort of leading line leading straight up to this
church I think it’s coming out pretty cool
I’ve also switched up my ND filter to the four stop medium grad just because
it’s so bright in the sky right now and a lot of you are probably going to ask
how do you decide which filter to use and I wish there was a better answer
than me saying it’s trial and error but essentially that’s what it is it’s trial
and error when you’re starting you need to look at it through the camera and
decide what looks best how much light do you want to reduce there’s no magic
formula in photography two filters you go up to your scene and you decide how
you want to manipulate it and how you want it to look if you’re thinking about
buying filters I highly recommend that your first filters be a three stop soft
grad or a three stop medium grad and a six stop nd I shoot the vast majority of
my shots on those filters I also carry from an Envy standpoint I carry a three
stop ND and a 10 stop nd so I carry four grads and three hard end DS and I guess
that brings me to the final filter which is the polarizer so essentially if you’re using the
square filter system like the lis system the polarizer screws right on to the
front element that is an extra buy if you’re buying filters joys you get to
buy lots of stuff when you’re buying filters polarizer serve a totally
different purpose than a regular nd yes you lose a stop of light too
when you put one on but what it does essentially is it cuts the glare or
reflection out of things so in this scenario I’ve come really close to the
water and the circular polarizer is twisted the opposite way so you’re gonna
see as I get this set up properly that there’s total reflection white stuff on
the water and you can’t see to the rocks below now if I spin the circular
polarizer like this it’s going to totally cut out the reflection
completely and polarisers kind of kill the sky a
lot of times in certain situations so you have to be careful how you use them
but if you’re trying to cut through glare there you can’t do that any other
way there’s no other way you can’t photoshop that that’s something that has
to be done in camera with a polarizer so they’re extremely important for that
reason to give you a great example if you’re in Antarctica if you go to
Antarctica or the Arctic or anywhere there’s icebergs
and you take pictures of an iceberg there’s always gonna be this glare on
the surface this reflection on the surface so you don’t actually see
anything under the water if you put a good polarizer on and you have an
iceberg in the right light it actually cuts totally through the surface level
reflection and you can see parts of the iceberg under the water they’re also
used in a lot of cases to cut glare on cars and automotive photography they’re
basically just used to cut reflection all the time in the right situations in
the daytime – they also make the clouds a little bit punchier so there’s a lot
of reasons to use a polarizer I neglected using a polarizer for years
just because I didn’t think it was that valuable and and now that I use one I
find it so so invaluable lots of talking today I know but I think
that’s how tutorial videos kind of have to be as much fun as it is to get out
the world and shoot photos yeah I think it needs to be walked through and talked
through I don’t think I got photos I love this morning but it’s a little bit
hard to shoot and do a tutorial but you guys understand that one last filter I
want to talk about before I end this is the variable ND filter and I don’t have
one on I don’t own one and what a variable nd is is an ND filter much like
the solar the circular polarizer that as you spin it the nd gets darker and
darker so as you spin it it starts out at two
stops or three stops and then it can spin all the way to a 10 stop nd and a
lot of people especially people kind of on a budget will think of that as a very
good alternative to you know a whole set of filters because in a way it seems
like 10 different filters in one and I can’t argue with that logic it does make
sense it does work if you’re gonna only want an ND filter and no Grad filters or
polarisers or anything stacked sure that makes sense getting then get a variable
ND filter but the real reason variable ND filters were created is for video
shooters so using a variable ND filter video people can walk around as they’re
shooting and just manipulate the light getting into the camera by spinning the
variable nd by doing that they can go from bright situations to dark
situations without having to change the aperture or the shutter speed or
anything they just literally use their finger as they’re filming their hand
cups the camera like this I don’t think I’ll be able to do this one-handed but
their hand cups the camera like this and then they just use one finger on the
variable nd to move it around to make sure they have the proper exposure I do
think though if you’re gonna buy filters invest in the square system because in
the long run it’s gonna be cheaper you don’t need filters for every single lens
you use and in my opinion it’s just a better system you don’t need the Lea
system if you’re starting out and you can’t afford it I use coconut and years
and years and yes they do a bit of a bad color cast but they’re cheaper and they
get you by like I said early on if you’re starting with filters
as well don’t go to lis and buy their big fancy landscape photography kit
because it’s too much and I don’t think it gives you enough for the cost I would
go out buy a Lee foundation system the adapters you need for your lens is a six
stop nd that’s the lead little stopper and a three stop soft or a three stop
medium grad indeed that’s all you need to get started the final thing I need to
say is that filters can if you treat them well last forever this is also by
Lee and just so you guys know Lee does not sponsor this video in fact I have
reached out to Lee on two or three occasions and they’ve never even gotten
back to me so no Lee is not sponsoring this video I just use their stuff
because I like it this is the filter case system that I use from Lee as well
and it just keeps all my filters in there I see people packing them around
in the original packing all the time to keep them protected you don’t really
need that this case will hold it I’ve broken four filters in the past year
just from dropping them that’s because I’m clumsy but other than that other
than just dropping them on pavement like dropping them straight on pavement or
dropping them off cliffs like I did in Iceland they’re pretty scratch resistant
they’re pretty durable I’ve had this filter which I dropped once and cracked
the top corner that’s the three stop hard filter I bet that filter for three
years they do last a long time they are an investment but I think they’re
totally worth it I think that when I started photography the biggest thing
missing was my understanding of filters and by learning filters and by going out
and buying filters it stepped my game up I became a better photographer because
of filters and I think that’s the one piece of kit of all the things I’ve
bought that has made me a better photographer upgrading my body didn’t
make me a better photographer upgrading my lenses didn’t make me a better
photographer upgrading and buying filters it made me a better photographer
so yeah that’s that that’s the video today if you have any questions or if I
skipped anything or missed anything or if you want to see a filter specific
video drop a comment below with any questions you might have or any ideas
you might have or any thoughts you might have on filters I’ve also written a blog
post about filters so if you guys want to check that out there’s a link in the
description of this video well so that’s it losing my voice from
the long talk and I guess I’ll see you guys later today when I start today’s
vlog see you there peace

100 Replies to “A Complete Guide to Using Filters in Photography”

Thanks for this vlog Brendan, really interesting and informative. I often wish you’d include the filters you use on your photo data when you show your images, you’ll always show the camera settings but not the filters and there’s always room at the bottom for more text, is that something you’d consider doing please? Keep up the great work!

Any way you could show how you do long exposure that surpass your normal 10-30 second exposures? Example I've seen you do 3 minute exposures and have even heard of people doing upwards to 16 minutes. I'm curious of how you can achieve that.

Well, because of you I had to spend a bunch of money today and ordered the foundation kit/wide angel 72mm adapter ring/big stopper nd/100×150 0.9 med grad/ and the 105mm adapter ring and polarizer😄 should be here tomorrow super excited!! I watch your vlogs every morning!! Keep up the great vids man!!! Love em

Still i am little bit confusing when to use polorizer. Everyone says 90degree angle to the sun to get best of it. What will happen if i use it in a sunset or sunrise (directly my lense point out to the same direction of the sun/sunset)

Great tutorial…Thx. I recently purchased the ICE ND filter from amazon and was blown away…I highly recommend them. I have had Cokin filters in the past, and the cheap resin stuff that generate a high color cast. These ICE filters are truly cast free. They have some drawbacks such as lack of seal, but can be corrected by buying these aftermarket. I managed to get the 6 stop ND, the 10 Stop ND and a square polarizer for $140 USD in 100mm size.

Very good informative video. I have a few cokin filters which I should use more often. Main reason why I do not is time !When I am on holiday or travelling on tour I only have set time in one location so it is get the best photo I can with the limiting factors at that time.Which could be other tourist, mid day sun, rain, cloudy sky etc

Thank you for sharing this with us. I have recently upgraded my filter system by combining a Lee Big Stopper with the filter holder, polariser and a range of graduated filters from Formatt-Hitech (their firecrest system). It works well for me, especially as it prevents light leaks during long exposures. More recently, I adopted Thomas Heaton’s tip of keeping the eye pice cover attached to the cable release to eliminate light leaks. In your video you clearly demonstrated the value of using live view when using filters and this is the number one time saver while using your necessary trial and error technique to create a well balanced image. Until, I watched your tutorial, I was starting to doubt my approach but you have put my mind at rest. I still regularly forget to switch off image stabilisation and to lock the mirror up!

Screw on filters can be used on a variety of different lenses if you buy large filters and then get some inexpensive step down rings to fit your different lenses, TBH there are times when I kind of wish Id done that rather than buy a Lee type system.

The origin of the decimal number for the ND, such as 0.3 for 1 stop is a log number (logarithm). Log numbers are simple expressions of big numbers. For example, a ten stop ND cuts light to 1/1000. Instead of writing 1000, it is expresss as 3.0, since 10x10x10=10^3=1000.

Awesome, awesome, awesome! A very basic and helpful yet profound tutorial that has BIG implications on one’s photography. Thanks for taking the time to walk us through using these tools. I’ve been plugging along implementing filters but have been a little frustrated and discouraged. This timely video was exactly what I needed for some mental clarity!

The Lee Filters are great, but I HATE how easily the adapter is knocked off. I've cracked filters twice and broken one once simply because I bumped it lightly and it fell off. Also, check out Breakthrough Filters. I haven't tried their square/rectangle filters, but their round 10-stop has almost zero colorcast. Fantastic filter.

Great video, Brendan. You might mention that there are apps (PhotoPills being a good one) that help you compute shutter speed based on your lens and which ND you are using, relative to the setting you are getting before adding the ND filter.

I did not like the vignetting induced by your grad filters, nor by your polarising filter. I don't use polarising filters for that reason.

I do use Capture One, Capture One has a Lens Cast Correction feature. This allows you to overcome the polarising filter's harm to the sky, dust spots on the sensor and assorted lens weirdnesses. Capture One is expensive, but probably less expensive than a filter set. If you can achieve your ambitions in software, it's a better buy. For those using Sony, Capture One Express for Sony is free, upgrade to Pro for Sony is discounted.

I use gradients in Capture One, they can be applied to most edits, not just exposure. And if needs be, I can erase parts of the mask to accommodate tall buildings and mountains.

Query on using ND and a long exposure for shooting inside a Cathedral. They are often either poorly lit, or not lit adequately, and then you have the backlit stain class windows to contend with. Can an ND assist with getting good shots in that condition?

Excellent video. One thing I notice when I do long shutter exposures is that if there is any dust on your camera sensor or lens, it shows up more easily in your photo. So while it’s important with long exposures to minimize camera shake by locking up your mirror, etc, it’s also important to clean your lenses and sensors, otherwise you’ll have to spend a lot of time in post cleaning up in Lightroom or Photoshop.

When using the Little or Big Stopper, Lee recommends covering the eye piece of the camera to avoid light leaking in, I noticed that you didn't seem to be doing that, do you have any issues with light leaking in from the eye piece?

Are you recommending a "first filter" GND before a CPL or standard ND? Or are you just recommending a "first GND" filter? Because I hate to be "that guy", but as a Nikon/Sony shooter, I stopped using graduated filters ~5 years ago. (And I'm 1.) a huge pixel-peeper who hates shadow noise with a passion, and 2.) a strong hater of extra time in post-production, who loves to get it right in a single click…

Either way, my point is, I'd definitely say that having a traditional, threaded CPL and ND make optimal "very first" filters for travel/landscape photography.

Hey Brendan. I only just found your channel and i'm loving catching up on your travel adventures. Gutted I missed your London meet up. I regularly have business meetings in the Sky Bar of Citizen M overlooking the Tower of London so everything in your VLOG was very familiar. I heard you say you were looking for locations while you are in Greece. For sure Santorini is a must, but an hour by fast boat from Santorini is a tiny island called Folegandros. It has a population of less than 1,000 people. We did a week in both 6 years ago and loved Folegandros. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folegandros There is a very cool church on a hill overlooking the capitol 'Chora' with a zig zag path leading up to it. I took this pic of my g/f https://www.instagram.com/p/BWAA6C4hPee/?taken-by=gadget333 while staying at the fantastic 'Fata Morgana' studios https://www.fatamorgana.gr/ Definitely worth a few days there with a camera!

Get Kase Wolverine filters I find they have no color cast and they're glass not resin like Lee, so water does not smudge, and they can be dropped and won't break. They also fit the Lee holder, but the Kase holder comes with a magnetic polarizer.

I started out with a Formatt Hitech 100mm IRND 10 stop filter and it now has a horrible turquoise color cast. I didn't know if I would like using square filters so I went to good old Amazon and bought a set of Zomei filters (6 filters – ND's and Soft Grads). They have zero color casts that I have found and work well. I do have Cokin hard grads but they are so uneven on the sides that finding a filter holder was nuts. I used a Sioti 100mm filter holder that allowed me to screw my slim CPL into it and then use the square filters on the front. I also got ICE 6 and 10 stop glass filters from Desmond Photographic since they also make Haida filters and they have no color cast either. I used them for a while but was tired of carrying all that weight around so I switched to round filters and now use the ZUME system from Manfrotto to hold them together magnetically. CPL filter goes on first and then I pop on my ND grad. I did invest in the NISI V5 Pro 100mm filter holder system but not sure I will keep it now. I hardly shoot anything that needs graduated filters but I have them just in case I do need them. I wish I had the money to invest in a better system but right now I do not! Thanks for the video and it helped me narrow some things down a bit.

Brendan, since you are using filters almost all the time, all your photos are fakes. Nobody really knows how the real photo would look like. It's probably difficult to run a business selling mostly fakes, I presume. BTW, do you know that Jodie is also faking?

Hi…Im starting with a Cokin P Series filter set, the problem is when buying filters i find for example Cokin ND 3stops in different Cokin packages, then i get confused which one to buy as they are all cokin and look original ?

Been using the Haida 100mm Nanopro system and so far so good, except for dropping my 10 stop ND the other day and pooching it. Haida puts the polarizer behind the filter holder rather than in front like the Lee setup.

Wow! Some of the people that comment on your video are… interesting! Great video and I’m definitely going to follow you because you handle all that crap with a great attitude. LoL. I’m always learning. Great info. Keep it up!

Brendan, I love your videos and they actually made me do photography. Last week, someone broke into my house while I was out and stole almost all of my gear including my camera and laptop.if anyone would like to donate so i can get back into the game with a decent camera, that would be appreciated.https://gogetfunding.com/photography-equipment-got-stolen/

Thanks BVS!I was having a hard time deciding which first grad to buy as an addition to my 3 and 6 stop solid ND filters. Coming back to this episode was very helpful!Well done! I will continue to follow your excellent channel!

I'm actually thinking in going with the Cokin Nuances series (Z/L size) they seem to be of high quality but the problem is that there's almost no reviews or information about them. Does anyone have any experience with them?Lee is so expensive, there's like only one official store here in Portugal that sell them. And Nuances seem to be Cokin answer to the quality of the Lee ones. Just wish there were more tests and stuff with them.The EVO Holder looks nice too.

Is there, in practice, a big difference when choosing GND for cropped sensor cameras versus full frame cameras? I was doing a search in Lee's website and they recommend choosing harder grads for cropped sensor cameras, as the transition areas on these sensors appear bigger.

Hi. You mention about filters and sticking with the non circular and instead the rectangle glass with the adapter that sits on the camera lens. I am new to filters and am in agreement. I think they would be perfect for enhancing my pictures. I am just quite unsure as to how you figure out what to get. Im interested in the grad and maybe colour. Would you recommend buying from Amazon who provide a wide range of beginner equipment or go streight to a professional site. If so which would you recommend? Many thanks. PS LOVE your video, very detail and informative